Daniel Gross over at Slate comes up with reasons which I find rather eccentric. I mean, wind power? Really?
Mickey Kaus, the anti-liberal neo-liberal who seems to be having fun running in the California Democratic primary against Barbara Boxer, adds one big reason that I don’t think we appreciate enough:
Texas has a relatively low rate of unionization–about a third of California’s. That means a) fewer rigidities in the labor market, allowing it to adjust to the market more quickly–tiny quick wage cuts for a lot of people, for example, mean employers don’t have to lay people off as quickly b) fewer rigidities in organization structure–they don’t have UAW-style work rules at Dell; and c) the absence of the public sector union “death-grip on state and local government” and politics and finances, which has helped produce near-bankruptcy at the state level (and actual bankruptcy in Vallejo)…
The public-service unions have a stranglehold on New York, New Jersey, California, and several other states where Democratic politicians have depended on them for campaign money and field work. And the teachers’ unions have a stranglehold on local school boards, which is why this week’s news that voters in 58% of New Jersey school districts had rejected their annual school budgets came as such a pleasant surprise. (In many Northeast states, local district budgets are approved — or in this case, disapproved — every year by the citizenry. Wonder what would happen if we did that here?)
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Ummm. Let’s see:
1. In 2009, the union membership rate–the percent of wage and salary
workers who were members of a union–was 12.3 percent, essentially
unchanged from 12.4 percent a year earlier, the U.S. Bureau of Labor
Statistics reported today.
2. More public sector employees (7.9 million) belonged to a union than did private sector employees (7.4 million), despite there being 5 times more wage and salary workers in the private sector.
3. Among states, New York had the highest union membership rate (25.2 percent) and North Carolina had the lowest rate (3.1 percent).
4. New York vs North Carolina unemployment here: http://bit.ly/cV8G2J
5. As for school district budgeting, in TX the property rates are capped thus limiting income. Hence, you know, “School Bond Elections”.
Sum: The union labor pool in the broader nongovernmental economy is too small to relate the effect you wish to impart.
Nice soapbox though. Next step, Hyde Park!
(stats from here: http://www.bls.gov/news.release/union2.nr0.htm yea I know, citing references does a lot more for the credibility quotient than the qualifier of the uniformed, “I don’t think we appreciate enough…”
Come down to Beaumont, TX., and you will see the money waste in two places. The BISD, which just built a 44 million dollar athletic building, complete with Olympic size pool. Then look at the city, that has dug a huge lake in the center of an eroding town, and has now decided to vote in an 8 million dollar building. The area is in a place, downtown, that only the people who work there will go. Waste, waste, waste. They don’t listen to the people, or what they want. Neither of them. If that is what is called prosperous, it is ludicrous. We have streets that need fixing, hurricane homes that could use help.AS for the Unions, maybe they have gotten out of hand, but they do serve a purpose. YOU would still be making 50 cents an hour if it had not been for them. You get rid of them, they can pay you as little as they want, and guess who will profit? The CEO and the Feds. Do your homework, and research where and when Unions came into being. I am not being critical of your article, just adding to it. For those who are younger, you don’t know the half of it.
I remember when the post office employees went on strike back in the ’70’s. I think some of them still are.
High school football stadiums would be even larger than they already are.
Here are the reasons why Texas is going better than anyone else:
1. Location, location, location – Why is DFW so convenient?
2. Mineral Wealth – Sure, Texas ain’t what it used to be, but mineral wealth is the reason why we have about 9 billion in the Rainy Day Fund.
3. Infrastructure – We have about 5 interstates running through Texas. We have the Port of Houston and DFW Airport. And Texas has its own grid.
4. State Constitution – Our constitution has a balanced budget amendment. It also requires our Legislature to be a part-time one so we don’t have people in Austin all the time coming up with new ideas every year.
The income tax argument is a little weak. When you take into account higher property taxes, higher fees and higher sales tax it is a wash. OTOH, you cannot raise a tax on a tax does not exist, and would require voter approval.
I dunno… I don’t think energy independence, oil technology expertise, and lots of exports are all THAT eccentric. It makes a lot more sense to me than arguing that unions, not a crazy real estate bubble, are what are holding the ‘liberal’ states back.
And as someone who’s had to look through a school budget, I wouldn’t want the general populace in charge of approving or rejecting one. Although there would be a delicious irony in having the very people our education system has failed in charge of perpetuating abysmally low standards…
New Jersey is totally driven by the public sector unions. Hopefully Gov. Christie is successful in reigning in all of the public budgets before it is too late. The layers upon layers of bureaucracy in NJ are staggering–each layer with strong salaries along with unreal pensions and health insurance benefits. Unions did have a place but they have put several states in an unsustainable budget situation.
As a recent transplant to CA from Texas, I was SHOCKED at how the the government employee groups have basically decimated CA’s finances. I didn’t know before that the prison guards unions are the ones who implemented “3 Strikes” in order to increase the number of people in prison – resulting in a 167% increase in prison guards. Every day there is a new story about $100K+ a year retirement benefits for former government employees. I’m sorry, but nobody needs to make over $100K in retirement – I don’t care how many years you toiled away working at the DMV.
We have $9B in the rainy day fund because we took the stimulus money. Plain and simple.
If we take the “stimulus” money and use it in Texas our federal taxes pay our percentage of it. If we don’t take the “stimulus” money and it is used by another state (say California) our federal taxes pay our percentage of it as well.
The problem with the “stimulus” money was that Congress approved it in the first place and then ear marked it for distribution which I suspect was not per capita.
I made no comments on whether they should have passed the stimulus, whether Texas should have taken it, etc. — Simply pointing out that if you are pointing to the rainy day fund as a symbol of how well Texas is doing — you might want to think again.
I pointed out the Rainy Day Fund just to demonstrate how much our economy is still affected by oil and gas in our state. Oil and gas has been critical to fund’s growth. Oil and gas (mineral wealth) is one of several reasons as I laid out that Texas is doing better than other states.
I’m going with the lack of a state income tax imposing fiscal restraint on state government, thus resulting in a dynamic economy:
http://www.battleswarmblog.com/?p=1102
My daughter lives in Illinois and is in elementary school in a highly touted suburban district. I have recently received two emails – one from the school Principal and the other from her 4th grade teacher. The one from the Principal said that as of March they had not received the $8,000,000 from the state that they expected last September and things were tough $$ wise (my dear Mother says that they will not get the $$ because the state doesn’t have it).
The one from her teacher said that her contract was not being renewed for next year due to lack of $$.
The state has been and is being run by corrupt *s*h*l*s and everyday I am thankful that I live in Texas.
Don’t forget that 20 years ago, the question was “What’s wrong with Texas?” after all of our banks failed and our economy tanked, while the rest of the country was doing fairly well. Everything is a cycle, we just don’t seem to be on the broader one.
Right. To work. State.
Sammy, you say no one needs a $100K pension. Yes, which is why your average “DMV worker” gets a pension of $20-25K per year. $100K pensions are for upper level managers and the lucky few who game the system in their final years – things which the unions fight against. I wonder if your admonishment on excessive pensions includes corporate executives, whose pension payments are 7 and 8 figures, not 6? You realize all those guys who say working people can’t have a secure pension do keep one for themselves, right?
In NJ it is actually not hard for a “working person” to recieve $100,000 pension. It is not uncommon with double dipping where a gov’t worker retires from one position after 20 years with 80% of the highest salary that they earned. Then this worker takes a different gov’t position with a similar salary. After retirement from that position collects penions from Both of the jobs so if the pension is $50,000 from each job that equals $100,000 PLUS health insurance for life. The real kicker is when these workers move to FL after the final retirement because the taxes in NJ are too high. HELLO–this is why NJ and other states are in such a terrible fiscal mess.
FYI–many, if not most, corporate executives (very broad term) do not get ANY pensions much less 7-8 figures.